Battle of Paletn V
Category: Unofficial Events Category: Nymean Events The Battle of Paletn V was a painful loss for the Vagaari during the Vagaari War. After their successful sacking of Helize III, the Vagaari choose to launch a raid on a larger Nymean target. To do so, they planned to send eight of their capital ships and twenty-seven frigates with 100,000 warriors to conquer the Paletn System and begin enslaving the population of roughly 150 million. The battle started well for the Vagaari. No fleets were present over the system and the small fighter force protecting the planet was quickly destroyed. The Vagaari landed warriors outside the capital city of Mosefra and began fighting the local ground forces. During the Galaxial War, when nearby Eriados was invaded by the Galactic Alliance, the Nymeans fortified the planet somewhat and trained a militia. Firearms were stockpiled as were munitions and light mobile artillery. Since it was assumed that the planet would offer little open resistance to the expected GA invaders, the militia was trained in mobile guerrilla warfare. They had also planned in many evacuation procedures so when the slaves appeared, the population abandoned the cities and fled into hiding within the swamps. This, along with the fact that many people were living in scattered farming communities, spared most of the population from being captured. The Vagaari quickly realized that enslaving the population would not be as easy as they thought so they called for additional ground forces to join them. After several hours of fierce fighting against the militia, Mosefra was conquered and the Vagaari began to round up the inhabitants. Before long, they began to send raiding parties to the various fungi farming communities on the planet. Those parties experienced heavy losses as they were ambushed by well armed and very mobile militia forces. The Vagaari commander realized the predicament he was in and ordered the freshly arrived reinforcements to travel in force to the towns instead of scouting in small numbers. By the end of the first day, the militia began to take heavy losses and were on the retreat. The Vagaari had already processed two hundred thousand of Mosefra's population and around thirty thousand civilians of the surrounding areas and shuttled them up to their slave ships. Sometime in that local night, parts of the Third Nymean Fleet arrived in force and began to tear apart the Vagaari space forces. The Vagaari fleet was busy supervising the transfer of slaves from the surface and were out of formation to defend. One of their battlecruisers was destroyed with ten thousand slaves on board. Five of the frigates also loaded with slaves were destroyed. The second day of the battle saw the Vagaari fleet scrambling to hold onto its airspace against a moderately larger Nymean fleet while its ground forces began to consolidate their spoils and withdraw for extraction. When a Chiss legion arrived with additional warships, the Vagaari were trapped between both enemy fleets and took heavy losses. Six of their capital ships, and sixteen more of their frigates were destroyed or captured at the loss of around 140,000 slaves. Two of their capital ships were disabled, one with heavy damage and high loss of life on board and one after intense ion canon fire fried the major electronic systems. In all, 21,000 slaves were freed and 5,000 Vagaari crewman were slaughtered by vengeful Nymean and Chiss marines. That left a total of around 80,000 Vagaari slaver warriors stranded on the planet. The Chiss legion numbering 60,000 strong joined up with the militia and offered weapons to other civilians who wished to join the fight. After a smashing defeat on an open battlefield that left 30,000 Vagaari and 13,000 Chiss or Nymeans killed or wounded, the Vagaari fled into the swamps. The Chiss sent 50,000 of their warriors to join the 110,000 militiamen and armed volunteers in hunting down the remaining Vagaari slavers. With the situation under control, the Nymean Third Fleet departed for other battles and left the smaller Chiss fleet to oversee the cleanup operations. Over the next week and a half, the locals and the Chiss rounded up the remaining Vagaari and killed or captured them. As was standard Chiss doctrine when dealing with Vagaari prisoners, all were executed at the end of the battle. After seeing so many of their own friends and family killed or enslaved, the Paletni were more than happy to oblige the Chiss and over 30,000 Vagaari prisoners were executed. With the Vagaari presence on Paletn V eradicated, the Chiss legion pulled out and departed for their own space.